Gordon vs. Langford

[FKIM01]

I think it had a lot to do with his wrist injury.  Romeo dropped further than I would have expected in accuracy, but that was likely a combination of the wrist injury and how much attention he got from the defense.

...and I would agree that Romeo is a better defender.

[Hoosierhoopster]

35 minutes ago, FW_Hoosier said:

Agreed.  I wasn’t surprised based on how they play, but I was surprised at just how evenly the numbers matched up.  

I’d say Romeo played better defense this season than JBJ ever did, but he really was not a better scorer than JBJ was his freshman year.  Kind of shocking considering how much more hype Romeo had coming in than Blackmon.

In fairness Romeo got a lot more defensive coverage / double teams etc than JBJ. This is also a stronger B1G. Put JBJ on this team, then the numbers would be apples to apples, here, thry’re not.

[KoB2011]

8 minutes ago, Hoosierhoopster said:

In fairness Romeo got a lot more defensive coverage / double teams etc than JBJ. This is also a stronger B1G. Put JBJ on this team, then the numbers would be apples to apples, here, thry’re not.

Unpopular opinion: JBJ would have fit better on this team than Romeo. 

[Hoosierhoopster]

Just now, KoB2011 said:

Unpopular opinion: JBJ would have fit better on this team than Romeo. 

Hard to say. Sure would not have fit from CAM’s perspective on D. His freshman D was beyond horrible. But he would’ve helped spread the floor with his outside shooting. 

I think what we really were missing was Hunter. We needed more outside shooting.

[IU Scott]

12 minutes ago, KoB2011 said:

Unpopular opinion: JBJ would have fit better on this team than Romeo. 

Maybe offensively but not on the defensive end

[FW_Hoosier]

7 minutes ago, Hoosierhoopster said:

In fairness Romeo got a lot more defensive coverage / double teams etc than JBJ. This is also a stronger B1G. Put JBJ on this team, then the numbers would be apples to apples, here, thry’re not.

Eh, not sure about some of this.  I’m taking the 14-15 B1G over this year’s B1G.  14-15 B1G got 7 bids to this year’s 8.  Wisconsin made the title game and MSU made the Final Four.  Maryland (4 seed), OSU (10 seed), and Iowa (7 seed) all won a game in the tournament.  IU (10 seed) and Purdue (9 seed) got bounced in the first round.  

And looking at Romeo and JBJ’s stats got me to thinking about how the 14-15 team compared to this year’s team... Honestly, that 14-15 team should’ve been wayyy worse than this year’s team.  I guess the 14-15 team had more shooters and a better offensive system, though.  Regardless, I don’t think it’s an apples to oranges comparison at all.  They were both freshman scoring guards on bubble teams with holes in the roster and a lot of youth... If anything, their situations were remarkably similar.

[Zlinedavid]

10 minutes ago, KoB2011 said:

Unpopular opinion: JBJ would have fit better on this team than Romeo. 

And offensively, Romeo would have fit better on JBJ's freshman team.  That team had plenty of good outside shooters: Yogi, RoJo, Hartman, Zeisloft were all 38% or better in addition to JBJ.   Yogi was the only guard who could slash effectively.  JBJ and RoJo weren't terrible, but give them the option and they're going to pull up vs penetrate. 

[Hoosierhoopster]

4 minutes ago, FW_Hoosier said:

Eh, not sure about some of this.  I’m taking the 14-15 B1G over this year’s B1G.  14-15 B1G got 7 bids to this year’s 8.  Wisconsin made the title game and MSU made the Final Four.  Maryland (4 seed), OSU (10 seed), and Iowa (7 seed) all won a game in the tournament.  IU (10 seed) and Purdue (9 seed) got bounced in the first round.  

And looking at Romeo and JBJ’s stats got me to thinking about how the 14-15 team compared to this year’s team... Honestly, that 14-15 team should’ve been wayyy worse than this year’s team.  I guess the 14-15 team had more shooters and a better offensive system, though.  Regardless, I don’t think it’s an apples to oranges comparison at all.  They were both freshman scoring guards on bubble teams with holes in the roster and a lot of youth... If anything, their situations were remarkably similar.

Yes that team clearly had more and better shooters and overall offense, that is the point. It’s apples to oranges in my book. 

Yogi, Zeisloft, Johnson, to go with JBJ, and Troy, obviously much, much better and more diverse offensively than this team, it’s not remotely close. 

That team also finished with 20 wins, 9-9 in the B1G and went to the tourney. Ok

[Zlinedavid]

7 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

Maybe offensively but not on the defensive end

Would he have been a better defender under Archie vs Crean?

The real answer is...we'll never know, but Crean's teams were known more for their offense vs defense across the board. 

[KoB2011]

12 minutes ago, Zlinedavid said:

And offensively, Romeo would have fit better on JBJ's freshman team.  That team had plenty of good outside shooters: Yogi, RoJo, Hartman, Zeisloft were all 38% or better in addition to JBJ.   Yogi was the only guard who could slash effectively.  JBJ and RoJo weren't terrible, but give them the option and they're going to pull up vs penetrate. 

I completely agree. 

[KoB2011]

20 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

Maybe offensively but not on the defensive end

Maybe, but Romeo isn't exactly a strong defender. He can be at times, but it wasn't consistent. 

[FW_Hoosier]

19 minutes ago, Hoosierhoopster said:

Yes that team clearly had more and better shooters and overall offense, that is the point. It’s apples to oranges in my book. 

Yogi, Zeisloft, Johnson, to go with JBJ, and Troy, obviously much, much better and more diverse offensively than this team, it’s not remotely close. 

That team also finished with 20 wins, 9-9 in the B1G and went to the tourney. Ok

Freshman RoJo and sophomore Troy are actually pretty good comparisons for freshman Phinisee and sophomore Smith, IMO.  Then you have the upperclassman big dogs in Yogi/Morgan.  More shooting on the 14-15 team for sure, but that also goes back at least partially to Romeo’s inability to shoot the ball.  That 14-15 team also played a large chunk of the season with sophomore Hartman at the 5, so it’s not like opposing teams had to worry about defending the post.

When I was thinking about this yesterday, it just struck me as funny that that year’s team was vilified for managing to get into the tourney and losing a tough game to Wichita State, while this year’s team will be praised for going on a run in the NIT.

[Zlinedavid]

11 minutes ago, FW_Hoosier said:

Freshman RoJo and sophomore Troy are actually pretty good comparisons for freshman Phinisee and sophomore Smith, IMO.  Then you have the upperclassman big dogs in Yogi/Morgan.  More shooting on the 14-15 team for sure, but that also goes back at least partially to Romeo’s inability to shoot the ball.  That 14-15 team also played a large chunk of the season with sophomore Hartman at the 5, so it’s not like opposing teams had to worry about defending the post.

Huge, huge difference right there.  Not a knock on Rob by any means.  But having an upperclassman of Yogi's caliber running point is a huge stabilizing factor. 

[KoB2011]

1 hour ago, Zlinedavid said:

Huge, huge difference right there.  Not a knock on Rob by any means.  But having an upperclassman of Yogi's caliber running point is a huge stabilizing factor. 

I'd also say where we are in the coaches tenure makes a difference, too.